1. Allegory:
A Tool for Interactive Media
Richard Smyth, Ph.D.
VM606 - Emerson College
15 March 2014

2. Definition of Allegory

The representation of abstract ideas or
principles by characters, figures, or events in
narrative, dramatic, or pictorial form.

A story, picture, or play employing such
representation. John Bunyan's Pilgrim's
Progress and Norton Juster's The Phantom
Tollbooth are allegories.

3. Analogy
A symbol is to a photo
as
An allegory is to a film
A photo/image is static (1-to-1)
A film puts photos/images into motion
(symbols interacting)

4. Examples
In Pilgrim's
Progress,
Christian falls into
the Slough of
Despond, and
Prayer helps him
get out

5. Examples

In The Phantom
Tollbooth, Miles
jumps to
Conclusions and
must swim
across the Sea
of Knowledge to
resume his
journey

6. Allegory: Characters as Abstractions

Rhyme & Reason

Lethargarians

Christian

Prayer

7. Allegory: Places as Abstractions

The Doldrums

The Mountains of
Ignorance

The Slough of
Despond

8. Allegory in Augmented Reality
American Plutocracy
http://johncraigfreeman.wordpress.com/2011/09/30/american-plutocracy/
AR Occupy Wallstreet
http://aroccupywallstreet.wordpress.com/

9. Allegory in Augmented Reality
The Goddess of Democracy
http://johncraigfreeman.wordpress.com/2011/06/28/goddess-of-
democracy-in-al-tahrir-square-cairo/

10. Memory Palace Revisited
 Images in Places
 Allegorical images in allegorically
significant places
 “Images” = pictures but could be
sounds/music/video/multimedia
compositions

11. Memory Palace Revisited
 Embodied cognition
 Metaphorical concepts:
dead (forgotten) metaphors
that structure thought
 “the mind is a body moving
through space”

12. Exercise 1: What Ideas to Store?

If you were a famous
star, what would you
rename yourself?

Think of three issues/
abstractions and write
them on the sticky
notes

Use the colored dots to
vote on your
preferences

13. Exercise 2: What Images to Use?

For the abstractions in Exercise 1, what
are some images that could allegorically
represent these concepts?

14. Exercise 3: Where to Store Them?

Brainstorm three
places in Boston that
are significant (i.e.
have allegorical
potential)

Brainstorm three
places in the U.S.A.
that are significant

Brainstorm three
places in the world...

15. Exercise 4: How to Access Them?

Layar (augmented reality app)

Tagwhat

QR Codes / Microsoft (Scanbuy) “Tags”

16. Ready-Made Allegorical Images?
Are there images
you might be
able to use in a
project like this?

17. Contact Information

Richard Smyth, Ph.D.

richard_smyth@emerson.edu

rsmyth64@yahoo.com